 | CEMI: the high cost of split jurisdictions
If you have even a passing interest in the politics of Northern Ontario, and Sudbury in particular, you will take note of last week's refusal by FedNor to support the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) at Laurentian University and weep. |
| Here's what's wrong with this picture
A month or so ago, a special task force for the Greater City of Sudbury called the Advisory Panel on Municipal Mining Revenues presented their recommendations to the city. |
| This week has seven days
For the last few years I’ve escaped to Cuba around this time of year to rest up for my next birthday, which is in May. |
| Look mom, I'm sorry but...
I was ten when I started developing my first pro forma apology. One of the flashpoints around my house was keeping my mother informed about where I was. My father had died when I was young and so my mother and I were on our own. |
| If Mick says it is time to sell, sell!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but capitalism in a crashing market is not as much fun as capitalism on the way up. It can be hard on manners, mood and general decorum as you watch those Pina Colada’s melt away with each new bar graph. |
| This would be a good day to pay off a loan
As I write this, CIBC is announcing a $300 million dollar write down in the third quarter on bad investments they have made into what is known as the sub prime market. |
| Provincial politics: A new deck of cards for the North
Actually, there is a new deck of cards for the whole province. Ontario is on the cusp of a recession. Times are going to get extremely tough. |
| FONOM Leaders’ Summit; the beginning or the end?
The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) had a special MEETING the other day IN TIMMINS to consider the state of the North. |
| Politics '07.Surprise! We have good leaders
Politics is a bone crushing, spirit sucking, contact sport that takes no prisoners and it peaks when the combatants come together for the obligatory ritualized winner take all televised debate. |
| Perhaps some light at the end of the tunnel
In the summer, if you are diligently slothful, and I am that, there is enough time to read a whole magazine. In fact, last week I didn’t read one I read two. |
| Perhaps some light at the end of the tunnel
You’ll see on the page opposite, a new series from Northern Ontario Business called “Rethinking Northern Ontario”. |
| On money and the concentration of power
I ’m sitting at the Oriel Bistro, Sloan Square, London, England with one of my favourite newspapers, The Financial Times. |
| A spring lament for our country’s soul
Next month I’m going to drink beer, ride my bike, watch my daughter play baseball, read books, take a beginners course in gardening from my wife if she buys me knee pads, (it’s never too late), sail, and consider adopting a religion. This may strike you as somewhat of an ambitious summer programming, but it really isn’t. What it is, is a |
| Algoma Steel, again a potential buyer is a seller
I remember some years ago calling an old friend of mine, Brock Smith, on some world beating matter like arranging a ski trip to the Sault. |
| Cuba; the high cost and benefits of independence
Ireturn from a week in Holguin province not that far from where Fidel (Castro) went to school and some years later started a revolution. |
| Laurentian University strikes a different course
Occasionally, even when you have grey hair, things don’t play out the way you expect. |
| A book, a committee, the beginning of change
I thought when it happened it might be a little more dramatic...perhaps an illness, an accident, a retirement, maybe a bankruptcy. |
| So, how will it look in four years???
Congratulations on your success. There is no greater honour than to be elected to lead your community. The voters, who know you well, have said they trust you. |
| A growing interest in regional government
It was a little more than a year ago that I first floated the idea of a new regional government for Northern Ontario. |
| Revelling in our independence (09/06)
We revel in our independence. Northern Ontario Business is one of the last independent regional business newspapers in the country. Actually, we were also one of the first. |
| On being a Banana Republic (09/06)
I like the looks of Mick Davis, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Xstrata, the new owner of Falconbridge. |
| Stockholders are not the only stakeholders (08/06)
As I write this column the plan for Inco to buy Falconbridge and bring synergy to Nickel mining in Sudbury is in ruins. |
| The importance and danger of the Productivity Mantra (07/06)
We held a conference the other day in Toronto that got me thinking about the limits of policy making. |
| On Mr. Harper and the return of arrogance (06/06)
The only thing worse than a petulant childlike control freak in your book club, sports team, classroom, scout troop or volunteer organization is a really smart one who grows up and becomes Prime Minister. |
| Rethinking the power equation in the North (05/06)
It was a quarter century ago when I first started thinking about community energy. Actually it was my friend Narasim Katary who had the idea. |
| On the implications of getting wired (04/06)
The conventional wisdom up here is that Northern Ontario needs to be tuned into the telecommunications revolution (read bandwidth) that is enabling the rest of the world to acquire Attention Deficit Disorder. |
| Awards business comes full circle (03/06)
I have been in the award business for at least a quarter century. My experience in this netherworld started in a downtown Hotel in Toronto where I had just arrived from Sudbury to become a principal shareholder in a company called Canadian Controlled Media Corporation, which was the proud owner of Scoregolf magazine. |
| Politics: The art of the possible (02/06)
I’ve been a little grumpy lately, actually more than grumpy. I’ve been really grumpy, which is about as dangerous as I get. This election has been a little wearing. |
| Awards business comes full circle
I have been in the award business for at least a quarter century. My experience in this netherworld started in a downtown Hotel in Toronto where I had just arrived from Sudbury to become a principal shareholder in a company called Canadian Controlled Media Corporation, which was the proud owner of Scoregolf magazine. |
| The Election: embarrassing, agonizing and cold (01/06)
As some of you may have noticed there is an election about the land. It is an important election. I have managed what, for me, is the unthinkable. |
| The Copper Cliff Refinery: a Greek tragedy (07/05)
If you're outside of Sudbury, you probably haven't heard much about Inco's Copper Cliff Refinery. |
| The New Inco: Promise and Challenge (11/05)
The purchase of Falconbridge by Inco is big news. |
| We would be fools not to: building the cluster (10/05)
If you're outside of Sudbury, you probably haven't heard much about Inco's Copper Cliff Refinery. |
| Thinking about my time in Thunder Bay (12/05)
I arrived in Thunder Bay in the spring of 1971. I was just back from my official post-university motorcycle trip to Europe and broke. I’d never heard of Thunder Bay. |
| Can revived chamber make a difference? - Michael Atkins (12/04)
Last month, I had the pleasure of addressing the annual meeting of the Northeastern Ontario Chambers of Commerce. I use the term “annual” advisedly, as I am told the last annual general meeting was some 14 years ago. No one seemed to know where the NOCC had been or why it had died. What is safe to say is that no one had much missed it until recently. |
| Would you treat your kids like this? - Michael Atkins (09/05)
The challenge in life is to figure out what is important. Trite, I know, but a place to start. If you are lucky, your family will pound the essentials into you at a young age and the rest will more or less play out reasonably. That doesn’t account for bad luck or the injustice fate throws our way, but it does account for how we face these challenges. |
| A lament on the winding road to Nova Scotia - Michael Atkins (08/05)
For those of you who are regulars, you will know I am now in Nova Scotia, spraining my ankles on shoreline rocks, slipping on the seaweed, walking the beaches, disappearing in the fog, dodging lobsters (I’m allergic), promising my daughter I’ll get that volleyball net up (like every year) and generally hiding from the world as best I can. |
| Toward a Region of Northern Ontario Act - Michael Atkins (06/05)
One of the things I like about this new provincial government is that in spite of some of the obvious missteps in the first couple of years, they seem prepared to take some risk and make some change. |
| On the matter of Canadian political corruption - MICHAEL ATKINS (05/05)
There is concern, I think we would agree, about political corruption in Ottawa. |
| You can take the man out of the North ... - Michael Atkins (04/05)
I have known J. J. Hilsinger from Sault Ste. Marie for at least a quarter century. I can’t remember when I met him or how I met him. It just seems like I’ve never not known him. I see Jim maybe two or three times a year and almost always at the Northern Ontario Business Awards, which Jim has supported since inception. How you really get to know a man, however, is by spending a week skiing, boating, hunting or fishing with him. |
| Power, politics and the flammable forest - Michael Atkins (03/05)
Generally, I don’t mind the smell of fish if it is on a plate nestled next to a baked potato slumbering under a little sour cream. |
| Sometimes the journey is the destination - Michael Atkins (02/05)
I was looking forward to my visit. |
| Making sense of the ministry’s prosperity plan - Michael Atkins (01/05)
If 2004 is any guide, miracles do happen. |
